Internals

In all major industries regularly scheduled stops are organized for important maintenance tasks. A turnaround includes the full cycle of preparatory work, the actual shutdown and execution of works until the restart. A shutdown and/or turnaround is a complex and critical activity for petrochemical companies. These industries organize on large installations for their production, regularly scheduled stops, or shutdowns. During these shutdowns, the most important maintenance tasks are carried out. The shutdown and turnaround process contains the complete cycle of preparatory work, the actual shutdown, the turnaround process and finally the restart. Many (mostly external) people are involved and under great time pressure a lot of work has to be done. Maintenance of installations is necessary for their preservation and sustainability.

Internals: If we think of column, we think of

Random packing

Structured packing

Support grid

Collectors

Redistributor

Bed limiter

Liquid distributors

Mist eliminators

Mass transfer trays

Vapor liquid distributors

We inventory various types and sizes of installation material. Random packing is dumped into the column’s section. It is less expensive than structured packing but has a lower productivity and offers more weight drop. Structured packing are specially designed materials for use in distillation column, chemical reactors and used in absorption. It consist of thin corrugated metal plates arranged in a way that force fluids to take complicated paths through the column, creating a large surface area for contact between different phases. You can contact us for all kind of column internals. Examples are liquid distributors and redistributors, support grid, hold-down grid, liquid collectors, trays, schoepentoeter, bubble caps, random and structured packing.

The type of internals depends on numerous things such as best suited for fractionation, a given distillation or other mass transfer process tower. Other things that are important are pressure drop, corrosion, the needed capacity, fouling, efficiency and/or previous plant experience. Internals are available in many different materials like ferritic-, carbon- or austenitic steel, titanium,…

We can fabricate a full range of tower internals for your process requirements. VDR Chemtech BV offers vast experience in providing total solutions for process column applications.

Products

Mist Eliminators

We offer various types mist eliminators. Types of separation products: Vane, MistFix,…

Fractionation Trays

For fractionation. Always the right trays for your refinery: caged valve, floating valve, fixed valve, bubble cap, dual flow baffle or sieve.

Performance Trays

Performance Trays. These are designed for efficiency complete with directional valves and for additional capacity.

Transition Trays

Used for the entrance and exits of feeds. We offer: gallery trays, chimney trays, lamella collector,…

Random Packing

We offer various types/ sizes of random packing: pall rings, saddle rings,…

Structured Packing

High performance structured packing with knitted wire gauze and sheet metal.

Superblend two-pack

Also high performance random packing in various sizes to increase capacity and efficiency. Utilized in revamps, retrofit and debottleneck projects.

Liquid Distributors

Design can vary: pipe distributor, high performance distributor or orifice riser distributor.

Maxswirl cyclones

High performance and high capacity mist elimination device, often used in retrofit, revamps and debotteleneck project.

Support Grid

A support grid, as the name suggest, supports for separation and reaction columns: wedge wire, random packing, structured packing and grating support grids with bed limiters and hold downs.

Feed inlet device

Schoepentoeter suitable inlet devices for your refinery based on single and multi-phase flow and more.

Wedge wire

Versatile and robust products: outlet baskets, flat screens, support grids, water well screens,…

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We will gladly answer any questions you have.

Liquid Distributors

Pipe

Available in different shapes and sizes. Examples are ring-type, straight-type, H-type, T-type and ladder-type pipe distributors. The T and H-pipe are used to introduce liquid and vapor in trayed towers. The straight-pipe is mostly used as a pre-distributor above a liquid distributor in a tower. The ladder pipe is mostly used in packed towers as the primary distributor. The ring-type pipe distributor is often used in a reactor quench sections.

Spray

It is a specialized distributor in ladder-type. Full-cone nozzles replace the distribution holes. It is created to overlap circles of liquid, that ensures that the entire area below is covered in liquid. It contains a main header and laterals with downpipes and spray nozzles. The spray distributors are often used in heat transfer services.

Pan and Plate types distributors

These distributors are often the primary device selected for a standard performance random packing where liquid flow rates are moderate to high levels. To achieve higher turndown ranges, the holes in the distributor are replaced with drip tubes with many levels of holes. Theses liquid distributors consist mostly of a perforated deck with drip tubes or holes for the liquid to flow and rectangular or round risers for the vapor.

High performance distributor

This liquid distributor is designed for dehydration to allow low liquid flow rates, high turn downs and high liquid viscosity. They allow precise levelling in the field. Available in titanium and zirconium. It gives a better and more consistent liquid flow.

Liquid Collectors

Chimney / Collector tray

It keeps the vapor and liquid separate. Designed to collect liquid and provide good vapor distributions to the packed sections above it. With a liquid feed to the column, the liquid can be combined from above before introducing the mixture to a distributor above a packed bed. A draw-off a liquid product. A chimney tray collects the liquid and provides good vapor distribution to packed and trayed sections above it. The liquid will spread on the tray without any leakage.

Lamella Vane type

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We will gladly answer any questions you have.

Packing supports and hold downs

To hold random and structured packing in place within the process column. Sometimes the hold down bas been used as a platform to level and support a liquid distributor. For structured packing the hold down has a reduced framework that covers all the structured packing bricks. For random packing the hold down is a metal that is attached to a flat bar of framework clamped to a support ring. To prevent any movement of the random packing during an operation, beneath the vapor riser there are expanded metal. With an integral hold downs you do not need an additional support ring or a separate hold down.

Random packing

Gas injection support plate; strength to support deep packing beds due to the maximum open area. The liquids flows through the support plate valleys. The vapor gets injected into the packing through the slots.

Structured packing

Gas support grid; offers mechanical strength to deep packing beds. It offers a liquid hold-up while it remains a flat support for the packing.

VDR Chemtech BV caters to following industries:

Refineries

Petrochemical

Chemical processing

Production plants

Water industry

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Common column malfunctions and troubleshooting:

Start-up difficulties

Shutdown difficulties

Primary design problems

Condensers, operation and reboilers difficulties

Leaking problems

Distillation problems

Capacity loss

Solvent loss

Instability